On September 25, AARP and AARP Foundation filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in the case of Babb v. Wilkie (No. 18-882). NELA and The Institute joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the National Women’s Law Center in signing on to this brief, which addresses the standard for federal sector employees to prove age discrimination in violation of the ADEA. Dr. Noris Babb was employed by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department. She filed suit against the VA, asserting that the VA made various decisions regarding her employment that violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”). The ADEA’s text governing federal employees, 29 U.S.C. § 633a(a), requires that decisions “shall be made free from any discrimination based on age,” in contrast to the ADEA’s private- and non-federal public-sector provision, which simply bars discrimination “because of” age. A U.S District Court dismissed Babb’s ADEA case, which was affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit, ruling that federal sector employees must show that age considerations were a “but-for” cause and not just a “motivating factor” in employment decisions. In its brief, AARP argues that the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation of 633a(a) ignores the broad language of the statute, and conflicts with prior precedent and the original congressional intent in passing 633a(a). AARP notes in the brief that seventy percent of the over 2 million full time federal employees are over the age of 40 and argues that section 633a(a) should be interpreted broadly to ensure that federal workers are able to recover when subjected to discrimination on the basis of age. Our thanks to Daniel B. Kohrman, Laurie A. McCann, and William Alvarado Rivera from AARP for their hard work and excellent brief.